Ask the Expert Series: Tips to help manage your baby's sleep

Expert answer: There are a few types of sleep disorders with various symptoms. If you notice snoring, frequent awakenings that are atypical for the child's age, difficulties falling asleep and impairments in your child's daytime functioning, it would be wise to seek help from a professional trained in assessing infant sleep. Given that your child is attending infant care, I would assume that your child may be more than 3 months old? Sleep needs and ability to sleep longer at night are dependent on the age of the child. Signs that your child may not have enough sleep could be identified through changes in behaviours of your child (e.g. extreme irritability, poor feeding, extreme fussiness etc.). If the problems only occur after attending infant care, I would encourage gathering more information from the teachers to have an estimate of his nap times. If teachers are not forthcoming, asking for an estimate could be easier than having them provide a specific log. Seeking information about the environmen

Expert answer: It sounds like your baby has developed an association between breastfeeding and sleeping, and may need some help to break the association. You can help her to learn other sleep associations that may be more manageable for you. Examples include a specific bedtime toy, blanket or swaddle. You first start by waking her when she falls asleep while breastfeeding, before putting her down. Thereafter, you can support her to feel sleepy while she is in her bed with a consistent routine. For example, hand settling after swaddling her. Do expect resistance initially as your child is learning to adjust to change. It will also be very important for you to be supported while you're helping your child learn, as this process can feel very stressful!

Expert answer: I can see how this can be worrying because most parents would expect a child this age to have a nap during the day. Nevertheless, every child is different. The total amount of sleep your child has seems normal for his age. However, if you're noticing that he seems overtired by 6:30PM, or would like him to have a nap to be able to stay awake till a later time, it is possible to support him to have a nap. You could either experiment around to find a napping schedule, or obtain professional help to develop a bedtime fading strategy. Bedtime fading is an evidence-based intervention programme that can be helpful to help your child build sufficient sleep pressure for nap times.

1) How do I know whether my baby has sleep disorder? Any symptoms to look out for? 2) My baby's naps have been very short, between 10 min and 1 hr. He will cry whenever I put him down in bed and on bad days he gets less than 5 hrs of rest throughout the night :( (with approximately 9 - 10 hrs of total sleep hours). Is there any way I can do to make him sleep better and longer? We do our best to keep the room temperature cooling ard 25 degree clesius. All these sleep problems happened after he started to go to infant care. The infant care doesn't logged the nap duration and entry well thus it is very difficult for me to track his weekdays duration.

Hi all! Thank you for your questions. If you'd do have more questions, please leave your questions on this thread and I'll get to them on the second Friday of each month. Take care, and all the best everyone!

Our 14-month-old has slept from 6.30 pm straight for 12 hours .He refuse to get day time naps? How can we train him for proper sleeping schedule?

My baby has used to sleep during latching. Otherwise she refuse to sleep. she is now 5 months old. How can I make her sleep without latching

Does babies refuse to sleep during Growth spurt? My 9 months old keeps on waking up during her naps and it’s hard to put her down to sleep.

Where is the best place baby to sleep? Baby cot Or with me in bed? when I keep her on the baby. She cries or skip the sleep

My 9 months old recently didn't sleep well at night. He wakes up every 2-3 hours. how can I deal with this?